This paper is a review of the remarkable progress that has been made during the past few decades in design, modeling, and fabrication of micromachined resonators. Although micro-resonators have come a long way since their early days of development, they are yet to fulfill the rightful vision of their pervasive use across a wide variety of applications. This is partially due to the complexities associated with the physics that limit their performance, the intricacies involved in the processes that are used in their manufacturing, and the trade-offs in using different transduction mechanisms for their implementation. This work is intended to offer a brief introduction to all such details with references to the most influential contributions in the field for those interested in a deeper understanding of the material.

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A low-temperature (< 300 • C) low-stress microelectromechanical systems fabrication process based on a silicon carbide structural layer is presented. A partially conductive sintered target enables low-temperature dc sputtering of amorphous silicon carbide (SiC) at high deposition rates (75 nm/min). The low stress of the structural film allows for mechanically reliable structures to be fabricated, while the low-temperature deposition allows for pre-SiC metallization. The process is designed for low-cost film deposition and for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor postintegration, stemming from chemical and thermal compatibility. Process flow, deposition, etching, and stress control are discussed, and a detailed process characterization is reported.[ 2010-0235]Index Terms-Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible, direct current (dc) sputtering, low temperature, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), silicon carbide (SiC), stress control, surface micromachining.

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A humidity sensor using suspended carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was fabricated using a low-temperature surface micromachining process. The CNTs were functionalized with carboxylic acid groups that facilitated the interaction of water vapor with the CNTs. The humidity sensor showed a response time of 12 s and a recovery time of 47 s, along with superior hysteresis and stable performance. The hysteresis curve area of the suspended structure is 3.6, a 3.2-fold reduction in comparison to the non-suspended structure. A comparative study between suspended and non-suspended devices highlights the advantages of using a suspended architecture.